Hotel Cheap Discount - To Malta and Back on the Malta Express

He proceeded to tell me he was from Malta and how he got over there at least once a month to see his family, when I said no. When a waiter asked me if I had been to Malta yet, i had just returned to Naples after touring Sorrento and Capri (Gracie Fields wasn't in) and planning to take the ferry to Sardinia to visit a friend in Caligiari.

With a day in Valetta the Maltese capital, you can make the return trip in three days. I took a bus from Naples down the coast to Salerno where I booked return passage on the Grimaldi Ferries "Malta Express" that sails from Salerno every Thursday, and as I was in no hurry, sounded like a nice side trip.

And it stays relatively quiet, apparently the Captain allows it as long as the crew do not play. There was a poker game going the entire trip in one corner of the lounge. There is a TV in the lounge and of course some slot machines. It has passenger accommodations which are spare but adequate and reasonably comfortable. Although there was a big shiny black Mercedes which really looked out of place, the Malta Express is what is known as a Ro-Ro (Roll on - Roll off) and the vehicles are mostly truck trailers. It takes nineteen hours to arrive in Malta, leaving Salerno at noon Thursday.

And served "family" style, the meals were quite good by the way. I never recognized any engine crew so I don't know what they were. And the officers Bulgarian, the deck crew mostly Italians and Maltese, the mess staff are Filipino. You get three meals a day served in a spotless dining room.

It's just at dusk as we pass Stromboli and then we are passing through the Straits of Messina and on to the open sea. The scenery is exceptional along the coast. There is a welcome cooling breeze on deck, and as we get under way, a blast of the horn signals our departure for Malta.

They ruled the island until the close of the eighteenth century when the British made Malta a colony which is how it remained until granting its independence shortly after the second world war. By which time they were known universally as the Knights of Malta, and finally gained complete control in the fifteenth century, kept the various enemies and corsairs at bay, they arrived to stay in the eleventh century. John of Jerusalem. But the most successful were the Hospitallers of St, most not, some were successful. And apparently any riff raff that could sail a boat near the island, knights both en route to and returning from the Crusades, and was attacked repeatedly by corsairs, the Island of Malta was a veritable fortress in the Mediterranean Sea. The first things you notice about entering Valetta are the massive walls. We enter the harbor of Valetta, after a few hours of sound sleep (I always sleep like a log on ships and trains).

He died at eighty from an infected nick he received from his barber. He dispatched more than a dozen who had managed to arouse his ire, with a brief stop in Naples, the legend has it that on a trip between Rome and Malta. Because he was apparently as good with his sword as with his brush, there are paintings inside done by a Maltese known as the Cavalier of Calabria. Barbara. The taxi driver insists that we visit a church named after St, on the return trip. Paul came ashore after being shipwrecked on his way to Rome. A German chap I met on board and I decided to share a taxi to just outside Valetta a short ways to a stone chapel which marks the spot where St. Customs is quick and courteous (they love the dollar there) and we disembark. Arriving in Malta on schedule we have a full day to explore as we will.

Besides I've learned some excellent additions to my multi-language vocabulary of swearwords and arcane curses, but I find it a cheap source of entertainment; i've been told this is not good behavior on my part. And go on my way having added another haranguer beseeching me to buy his "stuff" at half the price he first quoted, shake my head sadly, i make frequent stops to inquire politely about prices. So I usually have a trail of merchants haranguing me as I walk along the alleys of a market place, i'm a poor prospect when I'm travelling as I don't want to be weighed down with "stuff". There was plenty of time to spend in the market place where there are open air stalls selling everything you could imagine and a few you might not, back in Valetta.

Good wine and excellent service, good food. The chef himself came out and described the specials. Stopped for a late lunch at a Trattoria Parolaccia (my notes say this might mean "the Talking Place" or "the Place of Words) which was very good.

A Canadian fighter ace who downed over twenty aircraft while flying a Spitfire out of a Maltese airbase, among those were F/O Buzz Beurling. Walked through a park with formal gardens and monuments dedicated to the brave men and women who defended Malta in WWII.

I must remember to thank that waiter in Naples. It seemed like a much longer enjoyable vacation, although the entire trip had been less than three days. Arrived in Salerno at 4:00 PM right on schedule. The sea came up a bit after midnight but by daylight it had calmed down and we could see the Italian Coast off in the distance. We were served dinner and I headed for my berth, arrived back on board after a fairly exhausting day.